arcadeknight

So I'm a complete noob with emulation, MAME, and soon to be a noob at clrmamepro. I have read this thread to try and get a hold on how to update a ROMset, but I still have some questions, and I'm also confused about some things as well. I have yet to actually download and use clrmamepro as I am currently on a Mac and have tried several times to get clrmamepro to work (as I have read several tutorials on the workaround for getting it up and running on a Mac but in practice, they have been to no avail). But I got Windows set up with Bootcamp now so I intend to do all the clrmamepro stuff on the Windows side and just copy the updated ROMset over to the Mac side. Anyways, rather than just dumping all the questions that I have, I just want to ask one major one and then I will attempt to walk myself through the update process using this tutorial. So the main question that I have is which MAME version do you want to have installed and be working with, the MAME that is compatible with the ROMset you have or the version of MAME in which you desire to have an updated ROMset for? To clarify, here is my current situation: I am in the process of acquiring a MAME 0.220 ROMs (split) set, which states that it does not contain CHDs. Additionally, I'm unsure if this ROMset includes any Software List stuff, bios, devices or samples. Granted, I have a full MAME 0.228 set of bios, devices and samples, and I know where to find a supposed full set of MAME 0.227 CHDs, so I'm not too concerned about this 0.220 ROMset lacking those things. So since this set is for MAME 0.220, do I want to have a MAME 0.220 version installed or a MAME 0.228 version installed? Essentially, I'm wanting to update this 0.220 set to a 0.228 set. Also, on a side note, do I need to grab any DAT or XML files for MAME 0.220-0.228 or will the MAME that's installed have all that information already within it? Again, I'm very new at all this, and I'm not very tech savvy at all. So feel free to talk to me like you're explaining something to an idiot, cause that's pretty much what I am. I have some relative knowledge of MAME as I have used it very casually before only grabbing a few specific games and that's it. This is my first foray into actually acquiring and keeping and up-to-date FULL ROMset. Any help would be greatly appreciated. And lastly, I'm very thankful for this community and all the time and help you have already provided to me in the past.

Hey guys, just had a couple of quick, stupid questions. I currently have LB/BB installed on my local C drive. Today, I got an 8tb external hard drive, and I'd like to move LB/BB over to it and run it from there. So is it possible to run LB/BB from an external hard drive, and what is the proper way to completely move it off my local and onto the external drive? Likewise, if RetroArch is apart of my LB/BB (as it's in the emulators folder), is that possible to run exclusively from the external, and is there anything special I need to do when moving it or any of the LB/BB stuff over to the external? Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you!

@Retro808 Thank you! I couldn't find an 'Exit UI' option to map to my controller in MAME, But I cleaned up my controller mappings a little bit in MAME and upon testing 'exit' again in the BB Pause Menu, things seemed to work out fine. As for MAME version, I think it's just the standard MAME; I got it from mamedev.org. But I did download that MAMEUI a little while back before using LB/BB. I never really use the MAMEUI though. Anytime I use MAME, I just click the mame64.exe rather than my mameui64.exe. I'm practically brand new to all emulation, so I really don't know what I'm doing or if I even need the MAMEUI. I've just pretty much been downloading everything on the assumption that I need everything. While the exiting issue seems to be resolved, just for reference though, where exactly would the 'Exit UI' mapping option be in MAME? I didn't see it in the list of options in the general inputs, misc inputs, or other inputs. Is it referred to something other than 'Exit UI'?

Hey, So I'm trying to set up the Bezel Project in Retroarch on my PC. I just downloaded the Bezel Project, and after installing the bezel downloader utility, it gave me this prompt: "Before downloading or using any of the choices in the Utility menu, make sure you set the directory path(s) and bezel style type under Preferences." I understand what the bezel style type is, but as for the directory path(s), I need some help. What is the directory path suppose to be, or does it matter? For example, should it be in the layouts or overlays directories of the Retroarch parent directory? Or the config subdirectory? I read the help option in the Utility Menu for the Bezel Project, but it didn't say anything about which directory path I should be using. Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you!

Hey, I currently have certain platforms associated with certain emulators. But I finally got Retroarch working for me, so what I'd like to do is set it up so that Retroarch will be the emulator used when I play a game. What is the best way of going about this? Do I just use the Manage Emulators option to delete all the emulators I plan on replacing with Retroarch, add Retroarch as an emulator associated with those platforms and that's it? Or do I need to use a different method? As always, any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Hey, Not sure exactly what's going on, but when I'm playing an arcade game using MAME 0.222 through BB, when I'm done with the game and head to the pause menu to 'Exit' it just sends me right back to the game. This same process is working for all my other platforms, but for some reason not for MAME. Is this normal, or is there something extra I need to set up for it to work? Thanks for any help, I really appreciate it!

Hey, I was just wondering if it is possible to add music or sounds to a specific game. Many of the games I have are accompanied by music when they are selected or focused on in LB/BB. Some games, however, do not. I know that I can add background music to a whole platform or playlist, but is it possible to do this on a game by game basis. So, for example, could I add some sort of music or sound effects to say Ms. Pac-Man, that way when you focus in on that game it has a little something to go along with it. I've tried searching this up, but I pretty much just found how to add background music to an entire platform or playlist, which, for example, I have done to my arcade games because pretty much none of them are accompanied by music. Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thank you!

@DOS76, Ok, gotcha. Speaking of Retroarch, I tried using that but every time I started a game through it, it was all choppy and seemed like both audio and video was slow-motion glitchy. Sound would stutter and video would be extremely slow. But when I downloaded the actual emulators (the same ones that I had cores for in Retroarch) and started games up in them without going through Retroarch, everything seemed fine. But anytime I go through Retroarch it all goes funky. Is there some settings that I should be tinkering with to straighten that issue out? Retroarch seems like the route to go, and I'd like to be able to use that for the majority of the emulators, but it just hasn't worked for me. I am using an iMac 27.5 5k Retina Display (all-in-one) computer. Not sure if these are the right specs to help assess this issue, but here are some nonetheless: Processor: Intel Core i7-6700k CPU @ 4.00 GHz, 4001 MHz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processors RAM: 16 GB Graphics Card (maybe): AMD Radeon R9 M395 I really don't know anything about hardware, what's good and what not so good. And I'm not really sure if the AMD Radeon is the graphics or video card or not, I just went to advanced display settings and got that information. So, I'm just not sure if those specs are not good for Retroarch or if it's just some internal settings that I have to change to get things to run normally. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

@Retro808 Thank you sir! I had no idea about the command line parameters and how they worked, as I have never used the command line. But adding -fullscreen to it as you said worked like a charm. I did not use the hotkey scripts though, as now when I head to the pause menu in BB and click exit, it exit's the program just fine without any issues and leaves me in BB. So all is good. But just for my understanding, what do those scripts do, and how do they work? I know nothing about programming or scripting. Also, you mentioned using LB/BB controller mapping; how do you do that? Sorry if those are stupid questions. Again, thanks for all your help. @DOS76 What type of issues did you encounter that made you make changes to the DPI settings? Also, I have no clue about how to optimize those settings so even if I did change them, I wouldn't know what to change them to. Honestly, I don't even know what DPI is. Would you be willing to give me a crash course on those settings, why I'd want to change those settings, and what would be optimal changes for those settings? Sorry, I'm pretty much a complete noob at the behind the scenes tech stuff.

Hey guys, I am struggling getting the Kega Fusion emulator to start in fullscreen, and specifically do it every time. So here is the issue: I have edited the Fusion.ini file and set both ForceFullScreen and FullScreen to the value 1. When I do that, it will start in fullscreen. However, when I'm ready to get out of the game, other than alt+F4, there is no hotkey to exit the game, which means that I have to hit ESC to get out of fullscreen and then X out of the emulator. This, however, reverts the Fusion.ini file back to a 0 value for FullScreen. The next time I open a game requiring the Kega Fusion emulator, it doesn't start in fullscreen. My goal is to be able to exit using my PS4 controller, rather than needing the keyboard at all. I downloaded an app called AntiMicro to map the alt and F4 keys to my controller, however, when I would execute the controller combination, it would exit the Kega Fusion without having to get out of fullscreen, but it would also close down Big Box as well. Likewise, I also tried just initiating the Big Box pause menu and exiting the game that way, but that always resulted in Kega Fusion still running but just having a black screen, but I could here the game in the background and I could still interact with the game (pressing the controller buttons still made things happen in the game but there was no video feed), so I would just have to ESC and quit. I'm not very tech savvy, and I don't have any background in programming, so I don't really know what my options are here. Considering what my attempts have been and their results, is there any way that I can have Kega Fusion start in fullscreen every time, and exit the program without having to get out of fullscreen and do it with my controller? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Thank you so much! I really appreciate it. Now my wheel looks much better!

Hey guys, I'm completely new to emulation as well as to Big Box. This is all super exciting but also confusing at the same time. So I have kinda starting setting my LaunchBox up, getting some games and a couple emulators in there. I also have a free account at EmuMovies as well. I'm certainly getting the game box art, and some music for some of the games, but I'm having a difficult time with themes, specifically having them look like they do in the preview videos. For example, I installed the Unified theme from the Main Themes menu in Big Box, but when I go to the consoles page, it's just a black screen for all of the consoles and no sounds. Obviously, the video shows images of the consoles with sound effects in the background and small gameplay clips. But I don't see any of that when I use that theme. Now, I have not downloaded anything from these forums, so am I suppose to do that? I'm not quite sure if I'm needing to download other stuff beyond the theme itself and put it somewhere in the Launchbox directory. So if I do need to download extra stuff, where would I download it from and where at in my Launchbox directory would I put it? I noticed the download tab on the forums recently and realized that there are sound packs and art packs and other themes and all kinds of stuff like that. Are those only for people who make the themes or are those supporting materials for the themes that you install? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.